The attorney representing businesses, Jacque Claassen said the delay could have been avoided.

What one has to take into account is these problems can be prevented if one has a proper dolomite risk management plan in place, where you identify these risks and mitigate them by regular checks and if you do so you can take out insurance from an insurance company that is in the event of such a calamity, can pay out.

— Jacque Claassen, attorney representing businesses

If you don't do that then you sit with a situation where the local authority needs to go through a lot of processes to commit funds.

— Jacque Claassen, attorney representing businesses

Claassen says two filling stations have been affected and have gone down in revenue by 50%.

That equates to one business having lost R11 million in the last nine months. That is a large sum of money.

— Jacque Claassen, attorney representing businesses

There are businesses like the News Cafe that closed down after 17 years where the revenue dropped from R1.5 million per month to R200 000.

— Jacque Claassen, attorney representing businesses

Meanwhile the Tshwane mayor's spokesperson Samkelo Mgobozi has refuted claims that the Gauteng High Court, ordered that work begin on the sinkhole and be completed within 6 months.

He says they have not received notice for the lawsuit.

The city has not received any application yet for them suing for these damages, maybe it was an intent...

— Samkelo Mgobozi, spokesperson for Tshwane mayor Solly Msimanga

The suggestion that the court has ordered the city to repair the sinkhole is not in fact true. The city of Tshwane and its attorneys appeared before court and already alerted the court that the sinkhole was already being repaired.